Anyone who has been an observer, a student of the US political scene for the past 30 years is well aware of the phenomenon of induced amnesia. Our gigantic corporate media have perfected the erasure process with the Romney campaign. The biggest slate clearing in the last decade?
Bush? Bush who? (Locally, Dan? Dan who?)
Whatever is written or even video taped - rrrriiiiiiipppppppp - clear the page. Gone. Out of sight and out of mind.
Enough prologue, it is likely the level of awareness reached by voters this year will dissipate very quickly.
[Editor note: Missing portion in bold added late.]
I believe it is important remind ourselves what we consider corrupt, unfair, damaging or uncivil. What should be exposed or punished? We need to come to an agreement of who is accountable and how this might be made clear to the community.
The new council can be trusted to begin the new business at hand with this backdrop of the past available to inform decision making. My own belief is that maintaining and growing a public sector; e.g., an informed and engaged electorate, is far more important for activists' energy than anything that this new city council will be doing this year.
Collective issues like climate change, economic implosion, unemployment, food and water safety, failing infrastructure all need citizens who can come together in decision making. The market (speculation at the center) is the cause not the solution to so much that lies ahead. None of these issues will be well served by a crash course with frightened consumers who have been thrown in the civic engagement.
In reality it shouldn't be an either / or proposition, but with such tiny numbers of citizens with real knowledge of Encinitas political climate this is just a fact. That said, this blog will serve as a resource like the Encinitas Undercover blog, Encinitas You Need Us blog and the encinitasyouneedus YouTube channel for this past year. As pointed out since the early days of this blog, Leucadia blog served this purpose for their early writing chronicling local political characters with several posts this past year.
Because there are almost 300 Our Mayor posts that chronicle this end of a political majority's lock on Encinitas City Council, the blog will allow access and may be referenced at EYNU.
So, Our Mayor Stocks will still exist, but will be inactive. The blog will be dormant around winter solstice, Dec. 21 this year and that's appropriate as it started around the winter solstice last year. Winter Solstice brings the longest night of the year.
It is with pleasure we leave this behind. It feels petty when reporting petty - and the same goes for bullying, outbursts, lying, etc. Even when humor was injected and national stories interjected for some change, the negative approach to governing was an emotional energy suck. There is a toll it takes on the messenger. A long night indeed.
